Besides the daily frustrations caused by the ongoing electricity crisis and ageing infrastructure, residents of Ekurhuleni now have to contend with the public green spaces being left to grow wild across the city.
The sad state of the city’s green spaces has prompted criticism from ratepayers who slammed the council for poor service delivery.
The Boksburg Advertiser has been inundated with calls from residents complaining about the lack of grass-cutting and other maintenance of public green spaces, including verges, parks, road reserves and cemeteries.
Some furious residents also questioned why council workers (managers, in particular) get paid salaries when the city is left to turn into a jungle of sorts.
With no grass-cutting and weed spraying in some green spaces, including council-owned yards, the grass is so overgrown that walking across the lawn is difficult.
Those who logged maintenance requests expressed frustration that the metro did not bother to respond to their request for grass-cutting.
Some residents who are passionate about their neighbourhood’s green spaces said they often spend their own money to cut the grass and tidy up the pavements outside their homes. However, they expect the municipality to do its part, too – send its workers to tackle the parks and main road reserves more often.
Pastor R Spray, of Boksburg Pinkster Kerk, said he paid for a garden service to cut the grass on the verge outside his church and at the Boksburg North indoor swimming pool, which was overrun by tall grass, weeds and trees.
“I was forced to do it because this is a church. It has to be respectable. I also noticed when I went to pay the bills at the civic centre in town that the municipal property has turned into a jungle with long grass and weeds. I intend to write a letter to the mayor about this.“
“That place is like an advert for the city, but tell me, what do people who come here from out of town think about us when they see that even government can’t maintain its yard? A few days ago, the premier and the MMC were there. What do they think about the place that looks like this.”
Meanwhile, residents of Jansen Park also complained that grass-cutting at their park (Jansen Park, corner of Vickers Street and Edgar Road) was messily done.
Grass piles have yet to be removed, and an overgrown section of the park was not cut at all.
To rub salt into their wounds, residents have to put up with a failing underground sewage system that repeatedly clogs and sends raw sewage spilling onto the streets and into the nearby park. This causes the sewage to back up into the yards and bathrooms of the homes on Vickers Street.
Concerned resident, Fanie Delport, said even the pumping of raw sewage down the street by municipal contractors isn’t helping the situation because the problem keeps returning a few weeks later.
Another resident, Allan Barker, said the metro needs to get to the bottom of this mess as it subjects residents to a stink.
“The overflowing sewage has contaminated the environment and messed up my neighbour’s borehole water.
“In general, service delivery by the City of Ekurhuleni is gradually dwindling. We don’t get value for the exorbitant fees we pay to the metro for municipal services.”
Ward 32 Clr Marius de Vos blamed the snag on poor planning by municipal managers.
“What lacks is planning because they knew this season was coming.
“You have to ask yourself why the metro pays salaries to people who do not do their job.
“We, the councillors, are bombarded with complaints from frustrated residents, requesting council employees to do their job. Why must residents beg officials to do their job?
“Whenever we approach them, they give administrative explanations as to why service delivery is not happening the way it should be,” said De Vos.
Eighteen days into the year and the environment around the Boksburg customer care centre looks like a dilapidated property.
This building is ultimately the centre of local government in Boksburg and where customers transact with the municipality. It is a shame for officials and the executive of the council to start this year with filthy conditions all around the municipality.
Ward 33 Clr Ashley Hoods also lamented De Vos’ sentiments, saying grass-cutting has not happened according to maintenance schedules.
“I was told that they are working on a plan to tackle the problem. I think the city’s internal staff and resources should be capacitated enough to provide the capacity needed to meet maintenance standards.
“I think the city should look at ways to build internal capacity and not only rely on contractors to get the job done. We saw this happen with the garbage collections – we were reliant on outsourced contract work as the city’s internal resources couldn’t deal with the problem.
“The city is supposed to be functional, and any contract you bring in is supposed to augment what the city is doing, not the other way round where the city augments contractor’s work.”
The metro did not respond to our request for comment, but a senior municipal source told this journalist that the city’s appointed grass-cutting contractors were pulled from all sites and ordered to stop operations.
The official holds that the cancellation of the contracts is responsible for the delay.
Some municipal officials said they received a commitment from the parks department that the internal staff will complete the outstanding work, but nothing has happened.
Others suggested that the metro allocates a budget for staff to work overtime to clear the backlog and meet service delivery targets.
Do you have a concern about the length of grass in public spaces in your neighbourhood? Email pictures to faniem@caxton.co.za
For enquiries on the grass-cutting schedule, contact the city’s call centre on 0860 54 3000.
